By Chad King

My first two weeks at the Truman Library have been very productive so far, in which I have begun working on two substantial projects. I would like to share my first project with everyone today. I have been assigned to digitize and catalog a collection of photographs from a collection belonging to the U.S. Navy and from a personal friend of Truman’s. After the cataloging is complete, these photos will be available to the public online. The collection is diverse, but many photos are from a substantial event that I was unaware of until I started working with the collection. Many photos are from Navy Day, October 27, 1945 in New York City. Many thousands of people were in attendance to honor the Navy and triumphant end of World War II. A short video of the event can be seen below.

Many of the photos show Truman and other dignitaries aboard the USS Missouri, among many other photos showing the thousands of citizens coming to see the President and witness the events. Being able to catalog and make these photos available online provides a great service to the public, and they will be able to see many new images for the first time of this exciting event. Pictured from this collection is President Truman aboard the USS Missouri observing the naval fleet. As the evening sun sets, it casts that very familiar silhouette of the president that has ultimately become his trademark image.